CBS and Time Warner Cable's Smear Campaigns Could Backfire
CBS and Time Warner Cable are each asking the public to take their side in a nasty carriage dispute that could black out the network in several major markets, the latest in a series of PR battles over the fees programmers charge pay-TV companies. But these kinds of appeals may be growing futile -- or worse.
"Running these ads side-by-side, really just cancel each other out," according to one pay-TV carrier. "It aggravates consumers. They don't really trust either side on these sorts of things."
Every new spat already tempts regulators and politicians to play hero. New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate John Liu last week told CBS and Time Warner Cable to make peace "immediately" and promised to seek customer refunds if service is interrupted. The latest deadline for the parties to strike a new deal is 5 p.m. today.
"It is a mistake to engage in public arguments," said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research. "Highlighting a dispute to consumers, which will ultimately result in their paying millions of dollars of incremental costs for video services, creates incremental risks around the prospects of unfavorable regulatory policies in the future. In other words, they both risk 'killing the goose that lays the golden egg.'"
More at http://adage.com/article/media/cbs-time-warner-cable-smear-campaigns-backfire/243341/ .
[font color=green]The deal between CBS and TWC affects the New York, Dallas and Los Angeles markets.
This statement from CBS was just dispatched from the retransmission-free battlefront:
“CBS and Time Warner Cable have extended their current deal through today at 8PM EST while the companies continue to negotiate.”
Time Warner Cable followed up moments later with this echo: “Since negotiations are ongoing, Time Warner Cable has agreed to extend the agreement until 8 pm EST.”[/font]
= new reply since forum marked as read
us human /corps can't stand any restrictive regulations or rules ...............
